Dr. Paul Donohue Good Health

DR. PAUL DONOHUE GOOD HEALTH

January 28, 2005|DR. PAUL DONOHUE GOOD HEALTH

Dear Dr. Donohue: I am a 74-year-old female. One week ago I had a biopsy of my temporal artery, and the report came back positive for temporal arteritis. I am on prednisone. Would you explain this for me? I know I might go blind from this disease. -- M.B.

Dear M.B.: The temporal artery is at the side of the head -- at the temple. Inflammation of the artery is temporal arteritis (not arthritis). That artery is not the only one involved in inflammation. Many others are, but because of its prominence and because it is so easily accessible, the "temporal artery" name stands for the artery inflammation syndrome that can also affect so many other arteries.

Severe headache is a frequent symptom of this condition. People might complain of painful joints and have a fever. Many are anemic.

The sed rate, a simple blood test, is highly elevated in these patients.

Because the artery that provides blood to the eye's retina can also be inflamed, blindness is a danger. However, once the patient has started taking medicine, that threat disappears. You don't have to worry about blindness now that you are taking prednisone, the one medicine that quickly douses artery inflammation.

Quite often, temporal arteritis has a twin illness -- polymyalgia rheumatica. That condition features muscle stiffness and aches. The shoulders, lower back, hips and thighs are the places where it most frequently strikes. Fortunately it too responds to prednisone.

Dear Dr. Donohue: What about nits and lice? Do they ever get cured? -- C.J.

Dear C.J.: Head lice are tiny, about 0.08 inches (2 millimeters) long, so they are hard to see. Their eggs are easily spotted. They are the nits that are tightly glued to hairs.

There are many effective lice treatments. Permethrin cream, applied once and again in one week, is a popular one, and it usually works.

Nits can be removed by shampooing with a solution made with equal parts of water and vinegar. That loosens them from the hair. Then they can be combed away with a fine-toothed comb that has been dipped in vinegar. (The necessity of nit removal after two applications of permethrin is questioned by many experts.)